When Michigan mother Christine Duffy brought her 17-year-old daughter into her physician’s office for a minor foot injury, she was told that a new medical access law required a nurse to have a “private” conversation with her child, another example of how parental authority is being eviscerated by the state.

Duffy’s experience is best explained in her own words;

I was there last week for an appointment for Amy. She hurt her foot, which makes dancing difficult, so we had to get that checked out. Amy is 17; I asked if this policy was in effect and if so, how could I opt out. The receptionist told me it’s a new law and there is no opting out. Working to keep my cool, I said, “I’m sure there is.” She said, “No, there isn’t.” At which point I asked if I needed to leave and go to the urgent care center because I was not submitting my daughter to such a conversation.

That did not go over well

The receptionist closed the window. Almost immediately, the office manager turned the corner and said, “Mrs. Duffy, may I speak with you?”

She said there was a new policy that would allow a child to access his/her medical records online and the child would be allowed to block a parent from viewing the website. The nurse would also inform my children that the doctor’s office is a safe place for them to receive information about STDs, HIV and birth control. That is what the nurse would be chatting about with my children without any pesky parental oversight.

I kindly informed her that no one would be talking with my children privately, and I needed to know how to opt out of this policy before bringing Amy back for her physical next month. (Yay for physicals! Amy is so excited.)

By this time, the doctor was ready to see Amy so I had to cut the conversation short because I was not letting my girl out of my eyesight or earshot. Not when it was clear that these people were angling to undermine my parental authority.

Does that sound a bit dramatic to you? It shouldn’t. Because that is exactly what they are trying to do.

Duffy went on to assert her right as a parent to decide what her daughter should be told about sex or birth control. She also cited the potential of teenage boys being given condoms by doctors in defiance of parental encouragement to abstain from having sex before marriage.

In addition to the conversation about birth control and STDs, previous examples have taught us that nurses sometimes quiz children about domestic abuse, to the point where an accident or an incident where the child was spanked can escalate into a full blown CPS investigation.

This case highlights how the state, primarily via the schooling system and health care, is moving aggressively to curtail parental authority and set the precedent that the government is responsible for protecting children from their own parents.

“We are living in a new America, one in which officials and their subordinates will stop at nothing to control every aspect of our lives, as well as those of our children,” writes Mac Slavo, adding, “With tens of thousands of laws on the books and more coming, it is only a matter of time before the government will have given themselves permission to do whatever they like with you… and your children.”

Last month we reported on how EMS workers told a mother who homeschooled her children that they were “agents of the state,” before proceeding to conduct an inspection of her home.

The increasing effort to characterize children as property of the state was perhaps best emphasized in a recent MSNBC promotional video which featured host Melissa Harris-Perry decrying the “private notion of children” and that “kids belong to their parents or their families” in favor of a “collective notion” that “kids belong to whole communities.”